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SPEECH 



hon. john McQueen, of s. Carolina 



ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA 



DELJVIfcKt' 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1850. 



WASHINGTON: 

PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 
1850. 



*v C* Q O- r -\ 



<l o f ^ 2. 



ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA. 



The House being in Committee of the Whole on the state 
at the Union, and resuming the consideration of the Cali- 
fornia question, the President's Message in relation to that 
subject being before the Committee — 
Mr. McaUEEN said: 

Mr. Chairman: I think it more than likely that 
nothing I may submit will change the views of 
members of this body, or stay the aggression 
which, for some time, I have too plainly seen rap- 
idly advancing from the northern portion of this 
Confederacy upon that part of it from whence 1 
come; yet I feel it my duty to employ one hour, 
the first 1 have attempted to consume in this 
House, or in any other legislative body, in por- 
traying some of the most prominent facts and in- 
dications which threaten not only the ruin and 
degradation of the South, but, in my judgment, the 
downfall at no very distant day of this once happy 
Confederacy. That we have arrived at a period, 
when it becomes every honest man to reflect, and 
gravely reflect, upon the true condition of the 
country, none can doubt; and to view that condition 
properly, the various causes which have produced 
it should be most carefully examined. 

It is useless to disguise the fact, that a system of 
aggression, regular and unabating, is going on 
against the South; which if persisted in by the 
North, and submitted to by the South, must end 
in nothing less than our utter degradation. Sir, I 
do not speak without a meanins, when I say our 
utter degradation and ruin; nor can any artifice 
however ingenious, or any device however cunning- 
ly shaped, so cover up the truth as to hide it from 
the most ordinary capacity. 

What, then, is the great and moving cause which 
has brought us to this unhappy and 'langerous con- 
dition? In my judgment it proceeds from more 
causes than one. It Proceeds from a misconception 
ormisconstruction of the true principles upon which 
this Confederacy was entered into by ourancestors, 
and a sickly, fanatical sentiment, entertained now 
too generally by the inhabitants of what they please 
to call the free States, in relation to an institution 
of which they really know but little, and with 
which they have no more right to interfere, than 
they have to dictate to the inhabitants of the south- 
ern States, in what churches and at what altars they 
shall worship that God who gave them being. Sir, 
if this Government were a union of undefined pow- 
ers, concentrated in one common head here, the 
rights which the North now claim in relation to 
slavery might, with some degree of plausibility, be 
asserted. And tainted as they are by an education 
founded in falsehood, slander, and misrepresenta- 



tion, there would be some apology for the claim. 
But, fortunately for us, the Government never was 
constituted, or intended to be, one grand consolida- 
ted engine of powers, that might to-day be wielded 
by an unrestrained majority to the destruction of 
' any one section of the Confederacy, while to-mor- 
I row, that section getting the ascendency might, in 
I turn, convert it into an engine of revengeful de- 
I struction, until its devastating powers should anni- 
hilate the whole. No, sir; no. The framers of 
; our Constitution were too recently relieved from a 
struggle in which the question of equal rights and 
just powers were deeply involved, to allow them 
j to have forgotten the rights of the several colo- 
i nies, who in one common cause had waged a 
I war of seven years against oppressions. Each 
; colony was too jealous of its own sovereignty ever 
1 to have merged it in one common sovereignty, 
which, by a bare plurality of numbers, might be 
j perverted to any purpose that fanaticism and mad- 
' ness might suggest. 

When the framers of the Constitution came to- 
; gether to adopt a plan of government for their com- 
] mon defence, it did not enter into the mind of any 
i one that they were other than delegates from thir- 
I teen independent sovereignties — independent of 
each other and independent of the world. It never 
entered their brain that they were authorized to 
transfer that high and exclusive sovereignty inher- 
ent in the people of each State, to any power on 
earth, to be wielded by a mere majority against one- 
half of the States, even to their destruction. Nor 
would those who sent them ever have recognized 
their acts, had they attempted to do so. We see 
the prudent jealousy manifested in the express 
reservation of all powers not expressly granted to 
the general agency. Who for a moment can sup- 
pose that Rhode Island would ever have consented 
•to commit her fate to the hands of New York and 
Massachusetts, upon the monstrous principle that 
her internal affairs were to be regulated by an un- 
restrained majority? She did refuse for two years 
to give her sanction, as it was; and I venture the 
assertion that no three States in the Union ever 
would have ratified the Constitution, had the 
northern sentiment of the present, day even been 
suspected, by which the right of legislation is here 
claimed from the establishment of a flower garden 
to the degradation and destruction of one-half the 
States. Had those who formed the Constitution 
returned to those who sent them, and said, We have 
entered into a compact by which for your general 
welfare and happiness we have mingled your sov- 
ereignty with that of the other States, to be regu- 



latetl by the opinion of a majority of all the peo- 
ple of the States, unrestrained by any other check 
than their opinion and will, — they would have 
been burned in effigy sooner than received to the 
bosom of their people. Their names would have 
been consigned to the scorn and indignation of all, 
rather than perpetuated in history as a band of 
sages who had erected a beacon to guide the civil- 
ized world in the way of freedom and the highest 
enjoyment of human happiness. But, sir, it would 
be a libel upon their wisdom, their sagacity, and 
patriotism, to give such construction to their acts. 
They never contemplated the present state of 
things under their Constitution. They never sup- 
posed that a sickly fanaticism would profess to 
move under its letter or spirit, until agrarianism 
and desolation shall pervade the land. 

It is well known that it is to the North we are 
mainly indebted for that unlimited construction of 
the Constitution of which I have spoken. She, from 
her very nature and climate, is denied the produc- 
tion of many of the staples necessary for the food 
and raiment of the human family, and conse- 
quently must live upon the products of other 
places; her inhabitants must live by their genius 
and wits, rather than the first service allotted to 
man by his Creator. This necessity early estab- 
lished in their judgment the right to tax the agri- 
culture of the South with tribute to their mechanic 
pursuits; and, as a matter of course, construe the 
compact of Government to answer that purpose. 
This principle established, the door has been 
thrown open to any other heresy that may have 
its time until, under the broad regis of a general 
welfare constitution, nothing that a majority, how- 
ever mad, may design, will not be accomplished. 

But I have not time to dwell longer on this 
branch of my subject, and will come now to what 
I consider the immediate cause of the serious diffi- 
culties in which we find ourselves. And no one 
need be told it is the actual war, (though not yet 
of the sword,) carried on by one-half of the Slates 
of this Confederacy against the other, emanating 
from a sickly fanaticism among those who, if it 
were an evil, should be most lenient toward those 
who now have amongst them African slavery. 
They claim that they are too holy and pure to 
allow slavery to exist within this Confederacy — 
that they themselves, though once contaminated 
with it, have, from motives of philanthropy and 
benevolence, long since abolished it; but not con- 
tent with their own holiness and sanctity, have a 
duty devolving on them of wiping it off the face 
of this continent, as a thing too abominable for 
their toleration. And yet, who does not know 
that it wax northern capita! and northern seamen 
mainly who brought from ATrica the thousands 
whose posterity are the objects of so much strife? 
Nor is it true, that they abolished slavery, as they 
pretend they did, within their own limits. In 
this whole matter they have the grace to claim 
that which the truth of history denies them. The 
South, as is well known, was greatly opposed to 
the shipment of Africans within their borders, but 
the northern philanthropy of that day forced it 
upon them for their general "welfare and happi- 
ness;" and now, when they have civilized and 
christianized them, the same North, in its next 
generation, arrogates to itself to tell us that it is a 
black stain upon our country, and they will take 
such a course as we had better prepare for — they 
will give us twenty-five years to see the black pall 
of slavery banished from this continent. 



Sir, I have said that the North profess a virtue 
in the abolition of slavery which the truth of his- 
tory denies them. They never did diminish, to 
any considerable extent, the number of slaves in 
this Confederacy. They passed acts, it is true, 
in their several States, when they found thai 
neither their soil or climate rendered them longer 
profitable, but they were prospective in their op- 
eration, and before they took effect, they took 
good care to sell in the South the most saleable of 
their negroes, and pocket the money. They 
turned loose upon the world those who were old 
and unfit for sale, and then unblushingly pro- 
claimed a philanthropic and holy act, by whicr. 
they had purified their souls and washed from 
amongst them the black stain of slavery; whilst, 
in fact and in truth, they simply transferred theni 
to a more genial clime, but took good care to 
transfer themselves, by the operation, to that class 
which they call the upper ten thousand, whilst 
their children to this day are basking in the 
affluence thus commenced and secured. And it does 
seem to me unfortunate that gentlemen, at this 
day, who profess to believe the Bible, and claim 
so much purity in themselves, should forget thai 
part of the Decalogue which tells us that God it 
a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers 
upon the children unto the third and fourth gen- 
eration, and that they should not reflect how 
damning a sin they are proclaiming against their 
ancestors, and content themselves with prayer for 
its forgiveness, and let us alone. We feel at leas: 
as capable to pursue the path of duty to ourselves, 
our country, and our God, as they do. if it be & 
sin, which I earnestly deny, it is now our sin. 
We are content to answer for it, and it is arro- 
gance, rank and insulting, to presume to dictate 
to us, under an insidious, hypocritical, or fanat- 
ical sentiment, against the Bible, from the earliesi 
history of the world to the present moment, anti 
against our peace and unquestionable rights in 
this Confederacy, which, 1 trust in God, every 
true-hearted southerner will defend against further 
aggression, as they would their hearthstones and 
their lives. But to return from my digression: f 
have said that the northern States never have, to 
any considerable extent, diminished the number 
of slaves in this Confederacy, and will refer to 
one or two instances of the medus operandi of Oh j it 
emancipation to show that fact. 

In 1790, according to the census, there were in 
New York, 21,3:24 slaves and 4,654 free colored 
persons; between J790and 1800, I presume it will 
not be contended there was any emancipation in 
that State, and it is fair to suppose the number of 
free colored could not have increased by the manu- 
mission nt' slaves to any extent of consequence. 
In those ten years the free colored increased to 
10,374, making about 1,000 over double, whilst by 
the census of 1800 there were still in the Sitae 
20 ,343 slaves: and had they increased by procreation 
in the same ratio with the free colored, there shouic 
have been about 45,000. And should it be saic 
that the manumission of sluves increased the num- 
ber of free colored, still 19,000 must have beoi' 
sold to the South, or the parents of those who would 
have raised that number, supposing the free colorea 
not to have increased at all; but I presume few if 
any were at that day set free, and it is fair to con- 
tinue the calculation upon the basis of the increase 
of free colored during that period. By the census-- 
of 1810 there were 25,333 free colored, making an 
increase of about the same ratio, aud the numberof 



>s 



slaves was 15,017 — showing a diminution of only 
a few over 5,000 in those ten years, whilst again 
their increase would have swelled the number to 
about 43,000, of whom about 28,000 must have 
found a southern market. Nor can it be said that 
during this interval, any were set free by legisla- 
tive enactment, because an act which had been 
passed in 1801 only declared that children born 
after July 1799 should be free, but that they should 
continue in the service of their-owners until they 
arrived at the age of twenty-eight years; and they 
could not until July, 1827, have been classed in the 
census as free. But by the same act of 1801. a 
door was left open by which the operation 1 am 
describing might be carried on by law, as owners 
were allowed, under certain regulations, to carry 
.their slaves beyond the limits of the State, and 
no law was passed until 1827 abolishing slavery 
within that State. In 1820 the free colored were 
29,279, s'lowing an increase in ten years of only 
3,946, when the number of slaves was 10,088, be- 
ing reduced within the ten years 4,929. Now sup- 
posing the free colored had not increased at all, 
nor the slaves either, and that every one of the 
3,946 increase of free colored had been caused 
by the liberation of slaves, still there were about 
one thousand slaves disposed of in some other way. 
But taking my original data, there should have 
been at this time about fifty thousand free colored 
and 30,000 slaves, and about 25,000 of the latter 
must again have found a more southern clime. 
During that period too, there was an unaccountable 
falling off of the increase of free colored, which 
may be accounted for, perhaps, by the supposition 
that in those transition times many of them might 
have traveled off with those who, under the law, 
had a right to carry their slaves out of the State; 
and this may, to this day, furnish a reason why 
gentlemen of the North are so very cautious in 
providing laws against kidnapping; for I have 
never been aware that free negroes were ever car- 
ried south by southern ships or southern traders. 
By following the calculation through the census of 
1830, equally clear results will be found. 

I have not time to trace this process through the 
New England States, but I believe the same sys- 
tem of boasted emancipation took place in every 
one of them. I shall but refer to the State of 
Rhode Island, one of the earliest cradles of African 
slavery in this Confederacy. In 1790, she had by 
the census 3,469 free colored, and 952 slaves — she 
was then deep in her transition state. In 1800 she 
had 3,304 free colored, and 381 slaves: supposing 
her free colored had not increased at all, yet there 
are 165 unaccounted for, who may have fallen into 
the hands of kidnappers; but there are also unac- 
counted for 571 of the slaves, who could not have 
been liberated and added to the list of free colored, 
for that had diminished; and I leave it to the holy 
philanthropists and abolitionists of the North to 
trace the destinies of that unfortunate band of 
brothers, together with the increase of both classes 
for the 10 years. Their posterity may, perhaps, see 
where they found a market from the fact, that af- 
ter the slave trade was limited to 1808, the ports of 
Charleston, South Carolina, being opened for the 
importation of Africans in the year 1804, and re- 
mained four years. By the census of Charleston, 
during that time there were two hundred and two 
vessel entered the port of Charleston with African 
slaves; and from the custom-house books, and from 
under the hand of the collector at that time of 
Charleston, he gives authentic information, that of 



these two hundred and two vessels which were en- 
gaged in that trade and entered the port of Charles- 
ton, 108 of their cargoes were owned by foreign 
countries, (many of them in Great Britain,) 14 in 
southern .States, and 79 in northern free States. 

The truth is, the free States, as I have said, never 
did liberate their slaves; they sold them to the 
South, and built much of their manufacturing and 
commercial interest upon the money; and by a 
system of aggression as unwarranted as the pres- 
ent, they have taxed their labor and plundered 
their owners ever since, through the instrument- 
ality of this Government, to add to their own ag- 
grandizement. 

I venture the assertion, that no such instances of 
emancipation have ever been known in the North 
as have taken place in the South. It is well known 
to all gentlemen in the South, that one mat 
Louisiana liberated twelve hundred slaves, whilst 
the whole State of Ilhode Island in 1800 had not 
a great many more than twice that number. I 
also deny that those who have been turned loose 
on the charities of the North are, or ever will be, 
in as comfortable a condition as those who are 
slaves with us. They are in a cold and ruthless 
climate, amongst a white race as distinguished for 
cupidity and sharpness as any that ever inhabited 
a spot of this Globe. Inferior in intellect and 
genius to the whites — destitute of friends who 
are in affluence and power to employ and assist 
them — owning little or no land — unable to com- 
pete with Yankee ingenuity — indisposed at best 
to labor honestly — incapable of social equality — 
without food and clothing, or even fuel to warm 
their wretched bodies during the piercing blasts 
of winter — they naturally betake themselves to 
every species of horrible and loathsome vice 
known in the world; and in proof of this I need 
but cite to the places of public resort, where they 
are allowed to congregate about the cities. You 
cannot hide from their squalid wretchedness; nor 
need the philanthropist go in search of more vic- 
tims of misery on earth, for the exercise of his 
benevolence, than he may find in the cities — in the 
streets — in the cellars — in the alms-houses — in the 
suburbs — in the prisons and in the penitentiaries 
of the free States. And even those you find in best 
employment amongst them are generally carry- 
ing out the truth of the Scriptures, that " servants 
of servants shall they be." No preamble or mis- 
represented clause of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, or the grossly perverted passages of Scrip- 
ture will ever change this last condition until God 
has changed his nature, or his promises are vio- 
lated. 

Nor would I stop here, sir. I would carry the 
war into Africa if I had time to do so, and make 
the comparison, without fear of successful contra- 
diction, between the condition of a very large pro- 
portion of the white population of the North and 
the slaves of the South; in which much that I have 
said in relation to the free negroes of the North 
would be equally applicable to the lower order of 
the whites, with this distinguishing difference, 
that forgeries and counterfeits, swindling and other 
artifices, requiring a higher order of intellect, are 
mainly confinedrto the whites. In proof of this, 
I need only refe to the records of your courts, 
your mobs, yourState prisons, your penitentiaries, 
your stool-pigeon associations, your under-ground 
rail-roads, and every species of horrible device. 

I have recently seen an account of five hundred 
true bills, I think, in one week, (I am sure in one 



ti 



court,) in the pious city of Boston, for every spe- 
cies ot" crime. There have been expended in the 
county of Pliiladelphia, according to a published 
statement I have clipped from a paper, since the 
year li^42, upwards of §142,000 for the suppression 
of mobs; whilst, upon the other hand, I see it repeat- 
edly stated that there are eighteen thousand human 
beings, living under ground and in cellars, packed 
together in rags and horrible wretchedness, in the 
great city of New York. 1 saw myself, three 
years ago, there, scenes such as my eyes had 
in vt r beheld, and such, I trust, as I may be spared 
seeing again — amongst them a few that I never 
shall forget — two of them I will mention: The one 
was a blind man, led amid the throng on the great 
and crowded Broadway, by a string attached to a 
dog, (who seemed to me to have been his deepest 
sympathizer.) He held in his hand a plate, as he 
passed, that had nothing in it as bright as silver, 
when I stopped to add a trifle.. The other was a 
woman, seated on the steps of the notorious Astor- 
House, with a shriveled and writhing infant on 
her knee, and whilst I was in the act of giving her 
a pittance, I was accosted by a citizen, who said 
she was doubtless an imposter, who had borrowed 
the child and bandaged it with bands to impose 
upon strangers. 

In vain shall it be said such scenes and cir- 
cumstances are confined to the cities. They are 
not to be found, either amongst the whites or the 
blacks, in the country or cities of the South. No, 
sir, no. Go to the farms and cities of the South, 
and see the African, fed, clothed, and happy, and 
let your false clamor stand rebuked forever. Nay, 
more; whether these things be in the cities of the 
North or elsewhere, they are gathered to the pulls 
when it comes to voting, and swell the abolition 
fume, which comes here to denounce and insult 
us, in relation to an institution that, could they 
change and be elevated to its scale of happiness 
and contentment, they would be more improved 
in their condition than the philanthropy of the 
North will accomplish for them whilst they re- 
main on this earth. 

It is from this very city of New York there 
comes so strong a tide of abolition, a- furnishes a 
distinguished member in the other end of the 
Capitol, who stands up in the presence of Sena- 
tors, the people, and in the face of Heaven, and 
calls upon his God to witness his oath to sup- 
part the Constitution under which he takes his 
seat, and yet declares, in his place, that so great 
is his philanthropy, he will yield in his conscience 
to a s^nse of higher duty, when slavery is in 
question, and whenever it is convenient to accom- 
plish his purpose. God save me, sir, from such 
religion as this, and forbid that such votaries shall 
desecrate these Halls to the accomplishment of 
their purposes. Much better would it be to exer- 
cise their benevolence among the wretches who are 
panting among them, and let those only take oaths 
here, who are prepared to observe them. When 
they have relieved their own sufferers, we might 
better be prepared to hear them, and believe in 
their professions. Until they do this, 1 have no 
faith in their philanthropy, and would much 
sooner suspect that the religion of the Senator 
would find its happiest goal within the walls of a 
White House. 

Sir, there is a state of things at the North, with 
all their boasted piety and philanthropy, which I 
trust will never be realized at the South. Look 
for a moment at their thousand societies and asso- 



ciations, anti-sabbath, anti-marriage, anti-rent, &c., 
with their infidel conventions, and views of social- 
ism, and agrarianism, which seem to be rapidly 
tending to such a state of things as will pull down, 
to the deepest depths of agrarianism and confu- 
sion, all that the wisdom of a century has done 
for the country. I but recently saw from the col- 
umns of a paper, having, perhaps, as large a cir- 
culation as any in the Union, published in New 
York, by a gentleman last winter a member of 
this body, in substance, such sentiment as this: 
That the pirate who presented his pistol, and 
forced the surrender of a surplus over that which 
was necessary to one's own support, had the right 
to do so, and that the land-owner had no claim on 
his lessee, unless it were necessary for his own 
support. Such an abominable sentiment as this has 
been published before, from the Roman Tribune, 
and formed a great element in the course of things 
that pulled down that Republic. It was alike fa- 
miliar in the Jacobin clubs of France, preceding 
the time when Robespierre, Danton, and Marat, 
ruled the destinies of that people, and held up to 
the world a spectacle that humanity would hide 
from in disgust. It remains to be seen what may 
be its effects in this progressive age of monstrosi- 
ties of the North. It remains to be seen how long 
before those of every hue and clime, when made 
freemen and citizens by northern sentiment and 
practice, having forced the southern States tc 
withdraw from an association made insufferable 
to them, will vote themselves a share, without 
law or right, of the substance of the country, when 
the verriest vagabond upon earth, may share equal- 
ly with the honest man of the country, and when 
those whose sympathies are now so deep for the 
black race, may have their own slalus controlled 
by them, as in the crusade now against the South, 
their favorites are sent to this and the other end of 
the Capitol to rule the storm against us; but time 
admonishes me I must pass on. 

I have said that actual war against the South 
exists in the conduct, of the free States in relation 
to slavery; and I think every candid man who 
views things as they are, should sustain me in this 
position. Every State in this Union had slaves 
when this Confederacy was formed, unless Mas- 
sachusetts. She, I believe, had some, though not 
to be found in the census of 1790; and it may no: 
be too often repeated, that no association would 
ever have been formed had slavery not only been 
recognized, but more carefully guarded than any 
other species of property. Indeed it was to slaves 
and their proceeds the Government must mainly 
have looked for support — lands were then abun- 
dant and cheap, and no one supposed that impost 
duties under any scale of imposition ever could 
answer the exigencies of the Government; hence 
the provision that slaves and their proceeds should 
only be taxed in proportion to the representation 
of the States. Very soon, however, a spirit of 
fanaticism commenced its progress, which has 
progressed from various causes until we find our- 
selves in our present condition, with discord and 
strife from the one extremity of the Confederacy 
to the other, that I, for one, do not believe will ever 
be reconciled until the southern States will either 
be degraded and ruined, or that spirit of resistance 
which I think the duty of freemen requires, wiH 
vindicate her rights and her honor. I shall noi 
attempt the enumeration of the thousand indica- 
tions or facts which lead me to this conclusion — I 
will only refer to a few of them as I pass on. Ir. 



the progress of this spirit Abolition societies were 
formed, public sentiment began to receive the 
taint, men who were in most instances low and 
obscure, became orators, and acquired conse- 
quence that nothing less than superstition or 
fanaticism would have allowed them. Women 
and the youth of the country were taught to 
look upon the owners of slaves as fiends from 
purgatory; slanders of the grossest type were 
circulated to effect this purpose; emissaries from 
England were received and listened to as min- 
isters from God; they propagated a thousand 
libels upon the South, represented cases of cru- 
elty and blood, of which the southern people 
never heard; nor had they, unless upon their own 
ships whilst engaged in dragging the African from 
his native land. Ministers of the Gospel desecra- 
ted the pulpit with the grossest perversion of 
Scripture in aid of this unholy work. The Blue 
Laws were abolished, or rather worn out, by their 
own satiety, and the public mind found food in 
this unrighteous warfare upon the rights and 
peace of those whom, for the purposes of spoil 
and plunder, they would call brothers. Amid 
such a state of things there never have been want- 
ing in any country demagogues to take advantage 
of the tempest and ride themselves into place; and 
in thirty years after the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion, such was the influence of Abolitionism .that 
in the admission of Missouri the Confederacy tot- 
tered on its pillars at the hands of the North. 
Here was the first daring outrage in our National 
Legisla ure to limit the extent of slavery, and the 
fir3t unfortunate error by the South in confiding in 
pledges made by the North on this subject. They 
gave up a right at the shrine of peace and the 
Union, and they have in return for it a violated 
faith by the North, and the assertion that a prece- 
dent has been established by which the Consti- 
tion may at all times be trampled under foot. 
Congress had no authority to make the Missouri 
compromise as a constitutional act, and never did 
alter or amend the Constitution, by that act. In- 
deed Congress cannot alter the Constitution; and 
although members might vote for an act as a com- 
promise of their rights, yet the people would at all 
times have the right to repudiate it. If they fail 
to do so, still the act cannot change the principles 
of the Constitution. The Constitution is one thing, 
and a right under it is another. And although the 
people acquiesced in the disposal of a part of their 
territories to buy their peace at one time, it fur- 
nishes no reason why that act becomes an article 
of the Constitution. And even the argument itself 
comes with bad grace from the North, after hav- 
ing violated their pledge in the act from which they 
claim a precedent in the Missouri compromise. 
One set of our ancestors made the Constitution, 
and another set made the Missouri compromise; 
the latter, however, did or could not change the 
Constitution by their unfortunate act, and it re- 
mains to be seen whether the South will submit to 
still further aggressions by those who have vio- 
lated their faith in every compromise ever made 
with them. A surrender of a right has seldom 
ever stayed further aggression. Those who un- 
justly demand a wrong to-day, will have no scru- 
ples in doing the same thing to-morrow; and those 
who yield to an unjust demand once, will always 
find the next more inordinate and insulting; and 
scarcely ever has wrong been repelled as easily as 
if met at the threshold. So has it truly been with 
the Missouri compromise. It not only did not al- 



lay the mad fury of Abolitionists, but it gave them 
new zeal and confidence in their career. They had 
converted 3lave territory into free soil, without 
right, or color of right, and it was but natural 
their energies should increase. But I have not 
time to dwell long upon the facts that mark the 
progress of abolitionism, from the time of that 
compromise to the present moment. If there was 
the slightest abatement in the agitation of the sub- 
ject, I never have been able to learn it. On the 
other hand, it seems to me the victory then con- 
ceded to its advocates, but gave new vigor and 
confidence to their energies, until their influence 
has almost stricken down every obstacle to its 
progress, until it controls the almost entire politi- 
cal action of this Government. I cannot better 
portray its progress than Garrison himself has re- 
cently done in an abolition convention atSyracuse, 
in which he congratulates his confederates on the 
progress they have made, and the brilliant pros- 
pects before them. He contrasts the condition of 
abolition twenty years ago with what it is now. 
Then, says this apostle, the Governor of Virginia 
wrote a letter to the Governor of Massachusetts, 
complaining of an abolition meeting held in the 
city of Boston. The Governor of Massachusetts 
replied, "he had made inquiry, and could hear of 
no meeting in Boston except that of a white and a 
negro man held in a garret." Now their cause .had 
spread until millions were its votaries throughout 
the length and breadth of the land. He truly 
enough describes the progress they have made, 
and dwells, with unspeakable delight, upon the in- 
fluence they have acquired, and the prospect of 
speedy abolition of slavery throughout the Con- 
federacy. 

I am aware that to all this it will be replied, that 
Garrison and his associates are a miserable band 
of fanatics and madmen, unworthy of the notice 
of statesmen; yet truth bears me out when I assert, 
that they have been, and are the pioneers in fact, 
in this unrighteous crusade against the principles 
of the Constitution and the rights and honor of the 
South. They but mark out the road, and all, with 
but very few honorable exceptions, upon this floor 
follow in their wake; and so far as the practical 
results to the South are concerned, it is of but 
little importance to what party they belong, or un- 
der what name they are known. 1 know a dis- 
tinction is attempted to be kept up at. the North 
between those who are called Abolitionists and 
those who are not; but so far as the records of 
this House will show, it seems to me it is a dis- 
tinction without a meaning, unless they mean that 
one party aim openly to accomplish their object, 
whilst the others disavow it, yet always vote with 
them when slavery is concerned. Let us see for a 
moment whether the action of this House has not 
kept good pace with Garrison and his band for the 
last fifteen years. Then petitions for the abolition 
of slavery could not be received; now, your Clerk's 
desk almost groans under them. As late as 1838, 
Atherton's resolutions passed this House, being 
separated, by votes of from two to one to four- 
iifths of this body, and are as follow: 

"1. Resolved, That this Government is a Government o( 
limited powers; and that, by the Constitution of the United 
States, Congress ha-; no jurisdiction whatever over the in- 
stitution of slavery in the several States of the Confederacy. 

"■2. Resolved, That petitions for the abolition of slavery 
in the District of Columbia and the Territories of the United 
States, and against the removal of slaves from one State to 
another, are a part of the plan of operations set on foot, to 
ati'eet the institution of slavery in tile several States, and 
thus indirectly to destroy that institution within their limits. 




■ ,P,j«i.iol II..- si-.i. • mda breach of the 

iU ,o.rwhich they entered into ihisConfeJeracy. 
, ins titution rests on the broaa 
,lil 5 iimong ' 
..dlhitCongrc^intl ,• „- a- k,n>„ I- 

wers.hns. ghl todis riminate between the m- 

i ■: th SI ■ - and another, with a 
bolWiins the on< and promoting the other. 

. ,i all attempts, on the part ol 
ryln theDistrictol Columbia or 
I , ohibii the remova of slaves Irom 
. riminate between the institutions 01 
one portion ol the country and another, with the views 
v lati i t'lhel onstitution, destructive ol 
„ „„, 1 ,;,| principles on which the union ol these 
i is, and beyond the jurisdiction ol Congress; ana 
on, memorial, resolution, proposition, or 
paper, touching or n latingin anj waj or to any extent what- 
ever to slavery, as aforesaid, or the abolition thereof, shall, 
on the piesentntion thereof, withoul any further action 
belaid on the tabic without beingdebated, printed, 
n d." 
Gentlemen from the North make no precedent 
luiiona and the vote upon (hem now. 
As late as IS4-J the great abolition apostle and 
martyr from Ohio [Mr. Giddings] received ihe 
of this Mouse for offering the following 

■ . Resolv 4, That, prior to the adoption of our federal 

each of the several States composing tins 

sercised full and exclusive jurisdiction over the 

subject of slavery within its own territory, and possessed 

full power to continue or abolish it at pleasure. 

■••>. Resolved, Thai, bv adopting the Constitution, no part 
..i the aforesaid powers were delegated to the Federal Gov- 
ernment, but were reserved by, and still pertain to each ot 
the several States. 

■• 3. Resolved, That by the eighth section of the first arti- 
cle of the Constitution, each of the several States surren- 
dered to the Federal Government all jurisdiction over the 
i commi rce and navigation upon the high seas. 

■•' 1. Resolved, That slavery, being an abridgment of the 
natural riehts of man, can exist only by force of positive 
municipal law, and is necessarily confined to the territorial 
jurisdiction of the power creating it. 

That when a ship belonging to the citizens 
Of any State of thiB Union leaves the waters and territory 
of such Slate, and enters upon the high seas, the persons on 
!io;inl cease to be subject to the slave laws of such Slate, 
and, then fore, are governed in their relations to each other 
are amenable to, the laws of the United States. 

ed, That when the brig Creole, on her late pas- 
i m New Orleans, left the territorial jurisdiction of Vir- 
ginia, the -lave laws of that State ceasi il to have jurisdiction 
over the persons onboard said brig, and such persons be- 
came ami nable only to the laws of the United States. 

•' ?. Resolved, That the persons on board the said ship, in 
resuming thi ir natural rights of personal liberty, violated 
no lawol Hi" United Stales, incurred no legal responsibility, 
and are justly liable to no punishment. 

" 8. Resolved, Thai all attempts to regain possession of, or 
tore£nslave said persons, are unauthorized by the Constitu- 
tion or laws of the United States, and are incompatible with 
our national honor. 

: '9. Resolved, That all attempts to exert our national in- 
fluencein favor of the coastwise slave trade, or to place 
this nation in the attitude of maintaining a 'commerce in 
human beings,' are subversive of the rights, and injurious 
to tbe feelings of the free States, are unauthorized by the 
Constitution, and prejudicial to our national character.'* 

For introducing these resolutions, a member of 
this House was promptly censured, (notwithstand- 
ing he withdrew them without testing a vote,) 
and returned to his constituents to be reinstated 
to his position. 1 pass by the struggle made on 
the question of abolition petitions, which has re- 
sulted at last in the reception of some eighteen 
thousand, and also the progress toward the abo- 
OR of the slave trade within this District, to- 
gether with the effort to allow the slaves themselves 
to vole on that question, and come it once to res- 



olutions offered during this session by the same 
distinguished leader from Ohio.. They are as 
follow: 

« Resolved, That we hold these truths to be self-evident : 
that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by 
their Creator with the certain inalienable right to life and 
liberty; and that governments are. constituted for the pur 
posi of maintaining these rights. 

"Resolved, That in constituting governments in any ter- 
ritory of the United Slates, it is the duty of Congress to 
secure all the people thereof, of whatsoever complexion, 
in the enjoyment of the rights aforesaid. 

"Mr. Haralson moved that the said resolutions be laid 
upon the table. _ 

"And thequestion being put, it was decided in the atlirm- 
ative— yeas 103, nays SO." 

Let all who deny the progress of abolition in 
I his Government contrast the letter, tone, and spirit 
of the foregoing resolutions, as well as the manner 
in which they were disposed of, and say whether 
it is not. an insult to the understanding of the 
South, as well as to their rights, to endeavor longer 
to lull them into security by the worn-out and 
false assertion that there is but a band of fanatics 
engaged in this work, from whom the South have 
nothing to apprehend. Ninety members of both 
patties from the North virtually voted for these 
monstrous resolutions. Thirty-seven were absent, 
and we have no reason to believe, had they been 
present, a sufficient number would not have voted 
for them to spread them on the journals of this 
House, to remain forever as its fixed judgment 
upon the subject of slavery. These startling res- 
olutions declare a perfect equality of the slave and 
his master, not only in the territories, but in the 
States; and although a few gentlemen from the 
North voted with us, yet we have no reason to 
suppose many of the absent would have done so. 
Many of them may have absented themselves by 
design, not being prepared to make so bold ad- 
vance, and for this have, and are to receive, the 
lashings of the leaders against all those whom 
they call doughfaces. Nor in this day of abolition 
progress did the resolutions themselves excite 
more than ordinary feeling. No censure was 
offered for them, and every one knows no censure 
could have been carried. 

No, sir, no; the cause of abolition is now too 
powerful in this Government to allow the censure 
of one of its most distinguished leaders. No man 
opposed to its advocates can obtain preferment in 
its administration. He who seeks it, must at least 
avoid the sin of opposing their views, and those 
who resist them are now being called fanatics 
themselves. Who does not know that no man can 
be elected President who will avow his sentiments 
in opposition to them ? And 1 mean by Abolition- 
ists, all those who vote with them, and aid them in 
accomplishing their object. Who does not know 
that both the last candidates published such letters 
as were used by their friends at the North in favor 
of abolition, and at theSouth against it? I thought 
I saw it at the time, and refused to espouse the 
cause of either. I thank my God that I did. 1 
would support no southern man who would not 
pledge himself to carry out the principles of the 
Constitution in favor of slavery, or no north- 
ern man who would publish such platform as 
would better suit, in my judgment, a Delphian 
{ oracle in olden times, than an American states- 
I man. I have said to my friends for the last sev- 
| eral years, that the object of the Nonh was to 
abolish slavery in the entire South; and I still be- 
lieve it, even though it be at the saerifise of the 
I life-blood of her white population. I have said 



9 



that the object was to cast around the slave States 
an abolition girdle, and then carry on a regular 
progression, as systematic and certain as an object 
could be accomplished. But I did not suppose the 
plan would be so soon disclosed on this floor as it 
has been, by gentlemen during this session. The 
programme already is committed to type. I have 
in my possession three several plats and pam- 
phlets, sent me during the winter, in which this 
whole thing is regularly marked out; the transition 
States are clearly delineated, in which the slaves 
are to be put on equality with the whiles, or sold 
further South; and the little State from which I 
come is the first on the East at which a rest is to 
be made, or the general massacre to commence in 
this unhallowed work, in which the black race are 
to light the midnight torch of assassination, and 
bathe themselves in the blood of the men, the 
women, and babes of the whites. As to their 
liberation and equality with the whites of the 
South, it is a purpose for which God never de- 
signed them, and a condition they never have at- 
tained on a single spot of the habitable globe; and 
until the North change their hypocrisy into works, 
I for one will not argue this subject with them. 

But the grave question presents itself now to 
fourteen sovereign States of this Confederacy, 
equal in intelligence, in their rights, and the means 
of self preservation and defence — with any people 
on earth, — whether, in the face of all these facts, 
they are prepared to submit to such degradation, 
or to cravenly allow it to be cast on their posterity ? 
Will they allow a chain to be forged around them, 
out of territory of which they are entitled to 
their proportion, to be contracted like the crushings 
of the anaconda, until their race shall be forgotten ? 
I invoke Heaven and the spirits of their ancestors 
to forbid it. 

The vast and valuable territory now to be 
settled was obtained by our common blood and 
common treasure. In its acquisition — 1 would 
draw no invidious distinctions, though I do not 
conceive it immodest in me, to say — the little State 
from whence I come bore her equal pari., and her 
citizens fee! they are entitled to their proportion. 
I" will not dwell upon the motives, or means, by 
which it was obtained. It was done by the people 
of the American States, and it is immaterial to 
me, as i think u should be to (very patriot, who 
were or were not most active in obtaining it. It 
is obtained; it is ours; it cos; us not only blood, 
but $150,0110,000 of our common treasure. Who 
shall enjoy its possession and advantages? This 
is the matter we have to settle. Have any of the 
Staves, or their agents here, the right to exclude 
the others? If they have, lam sure I have yet 

1 am the reason, in law, in politics, in m irals, 
or honesty, by which joint owners can be dej 
of their fair proportion. There can he no re 

is this Government is to be converted into ;i 
machine to be controlled by fanaticism or a sickly 
religious sentiment; and even then i iavi 
educated in no school of religion, by which broi 
should be robbed of their rights by brothers. 

But there are a people occupying this territory, 
and they demand a government tor the sat 
their property and lives. And at this point a f'ulse 
issue, in character with the whole conduct of the 
Norm, is sedulously attempted to be kept before 
the world, h is s. nd (hat the South have demand- 
ed legislative action to extend slavery over these 
territories, and that the North simply deny them 
thai right. This i3 not the truth; and every honest 



man who knows the history of this whole contro- 
versy, knows it. The North are the actors in 
this whole issue, and the South but resist their 
efforts. It is very well known that near the close 
of the last session of Congress every southern 
member on this floor voted to give California ti 
government, such as other Territories have had; 
every northern man, except very few whose 
hearts were on the side of justice, voted to defeat 
that measure, unless the bill should exclude the 
South from every foot of the territory; and that, 
too, notwithstanding about $7,000,000, necessary 
to carry out the purpose of the Government, were 
suspended upon it. Then the Sooth agreed that 
the people of the Territory required a government 
better than that of the pistol and bowie-knife. 
Then we agreed that the citizens of the United 
States, wherever they were, deserved our protec- 
tion and should not be neglected; out the North 
rallied to prevent it; and at one time during the 
last memorable night of the session, when there 
seemed to be some prospect of the passage of the 
bill, I witnessed the first practical operation of the 
yeas and nays, on this floor, at the hands of the 
North; and those brothers, now so much beloved 
in California — blood of our blood and flesh of our 
flesh — were left under the law of the bowie-knife 
and revolver, so horrible at this time to the sensi- 
bilities of northern gentlemen. 

The inhabitants — I beg pardon — the floating 
population, of every color and nation, who hap- 
pened in California, have, since that time, clothed 
themselves in the habiliments of sovereignly, and 
demand admission as one of the States of this 
Confederacy, upon equal terms with the others; 
and the very men who refused and prevented a 
government for her, as 1 have already said, are to 
a man her most zealous advocates; and it is ama- 
zing to witness the zeal, of those gentlemen to ac- 
complish their purpose and consummate a meas- 
ure, such as the history of the world will furnish 
no parallel; but the reason is manifest and cannot 
;'i,:, ' ■ it fraud had been practiced 
in ..he election of President, and to avoid the 

i Wilrnot proviso, upon the strength 
and influence of party, this measure was devised 
to suit the Aboliti hilst the South is to be 

insuli led, un ie Administration 

. of ihe sovereign 

. s of the peopl 

But. will this Government give its sanction to 
ui irpation i Tin question cannot be loo 
i, Whence came the sovereignty to 
these people r Did it exist with the Mexicans, 
Indians, and negroes, who li our land ? 

Did i ;. army possess it in their 

own right : Could the President, without the 
authority from Congress, confer it upon th 
Did those who went there io speculate or dig gold 
carry it with them? Those who remained on.the 
soil, afl< i- th '. uld only be citizens of the . 

Uniti afti ii expiration of live j . 

by the law i 'he i fncers of the army 

pi iple of the V 
lid not as such become sjverei 
righ of the States. The Pres 

con overeignty on any on< ; 

nor can it be said, with truth, that mere visitors 
in the country have the right to make a constitu- 
tion for it, and claim d irnain equal in extent to 
one-half of Europe, to the exclusion of the rights 
ne-half the States of this Confederacy. <But 
suppose there were some persons there having 



10 



audi rizhts as tire here pretended, how many were 
necessary to do this act? Was one a sovereign ? 
were two? or one hundred or ten thousand? If 
any of these numbers, when did the blood of sov- 
sjnty begin to course their veins? These are 
lions that never could be answered to the 
satisfaction of a corporal's guard in this House, 
were it not that the southern man, wit!) his slaves, 
i il from going there. There is no 
sovereignty in tins country, except in the people 
of the States; and no agency of this Government 
can transfer it, except by limited power of attor- 
ney; and I am utterly opposed to its being usurped 
either by the President, aspirants for place, or the 
heterogeni ous mass that would assume it in Cali- 
nia. Let them go back into a territorial con- 
dition, that the land may lie purged of the spurious 
rs who might claim to be such, and her num- 
bers ascertained, not by the shipload, as counted 
by the father of compromises in the other end of 
the Capitol, who makes no deduction for all those 
who return to their homes, or pursue their trade 
upon the bosom of the sea, but the actual number 
" American citizens. Let her go back until she 
may come into the Union as other territories have 
done. This whole thing of the "sovereign State 
of California" would look better in the pages of 
the Arabian Nights than the archives of this 
body. 

As to the residue of the Territories I shall not 
object to give them territorial governments, pro- 
vided they conform to the principles of the Con- 
stitution and rights of the States, but these rights: 



As to the proposed oompromise from the other 
end of the Capitol: If its name were changed to 
that of the ignominious surrender of the South, 
and I were then to vote upon its title, I should 
vote in favor of the change. But I could not be 
induced to vote for any other feature in the bill. 
I am opposed to it, because it proposes to admit 
California with all its enormities. I am opposed 
to it, because it proposes to purchase nearly one- 
third of Texas (acknowledged by Mr. Webster 
himself to be slave territory) with our own money, 
to become ultimately subject to some of the new- 
fangled non-interventions or provisos of free- 
soilism. 1 am opposed to it, because the report 
of the committee expresses the existence of the 
Mexican laws in the territories; because it pro- 
poses to insert the entering wedge in the abolition 
of slavery in this District; because it proposes to 
legislate in fact for the negro, instead of the 
master, in the States. And above all, I am op- 
posed to it, because, in my estimation, it would 
amount to an entire surrender of the rights and 
honor of the South, and instead of allaying the 
aggressions regularly going on against us, it would 
give new zeal and confidence to our enemies, very 
soon to show itself in this District, the dock- 
yards and arsenals, and before many years, in the 
States. 

Our ancestors made compromises in the adop- 
tion of the Constitution; their posterity made 
compromises in the admission of Missouri; and 
again, on the tariff of 1833. And what have they 
availed us against the arrogance of the North ? 



in my judgment, utterly forbid the interference of j I call upon patriots from the North and the South, 



this Government to exclude slavery in any shape 
or form — under any name, or by any proviso of 
any president- making platform. 

I utterly protest against the astounding proviso, 
which may justly be called Mr. Clay's proviso. 
He, I think, is entitled to a proviso; though I should 
not be willing to award him more for the free-soil 
sentiments he has repeatedly uttered. I have read 
some little of conquests by Governments, but it has 
remained for this age to discover a people conquer- 
ing another, obtaining their lands, and by the opera- 
tion destroying their own property by its touching 
their soil, and compelled to abandon theirown reli- 
gion and to adopt that of the conquered. Yet such is 
the result of the prevalence of the Mexican laws if 
they be of force so as to exclude slavery. Sir, these 
various shifts are lamentable and disgusting in this 
bold effort to cheat the South. Can any one be- 
lieve that the day after the treaty, American citi 



if they love this Union, as many profess here, to 
look at this matter as it is, and to exercise their 
energies to restore this Government to its original 
character; to cast out the poisonous heresy that 
threatens its dissolution. 

But we hear on this floor that the South are ar- 
rogant, and the North (having all power) will not 
grant her demands. I ask, in what single instance, 
since the establishment of this Confederacy, has 
the South ever demanded the establishment of a 
single principle of doubtful constitutionality ? And 
who does not know that the arrogance always 
comes in every insidious form from the other end 
of the compass? and who does not feel that there 
is double arrogance in the unfounded assertion ? 
It is with the North to determine whether the 
Union of our fathers shall stand or fall. She is 
now in the majority, and the destinies of the Union 
are in her hands. It is for the South to take care 



zenscouldnotbeallowed in New Mexico to worship \\ of herself, according to her sovereign and consti- 



their God in any other faith than that of the Ro- 
man Catholic? Can any one believe that Ameri- 
can officers who had slaves with them must have 
stood by and witnessed their liberation ? Suppose 
the Mexicans with a view of improving the physi- 
cal powers of their citizens or for their better secu- 
rity in crossing their cliffs and precipices, had a 
law prohibiting the use of horses, would it be con- 
tended that an American now on the territory 
should surrender his horse to such law and make 
his journey on foot? Again; suppose the territory 
had been conquered shortly after the adoption of 
the Federal Constitution, when every State in the 
Union had slaves, could there be found a man so 
lost to common sense as to contend that none 
could go with their slaves without encountering 
their liberation ? 1 do not believe it; nor do I be- 
lieve it would be so contended now, but for the 
influence of abolitionism. 



tutional rights, in the Union, if she can, out of il, 
if she must. Nor will the idle threats of arrogance, 
or the painted pictures of fanaticism, deter her 
from her duty.' I make no thieats, except as a man 
about to be assailed in his person, his rights, or his 
honor. When wrong is attempted against me, 1 
will repel it; and, although I trust the conflict may 
never come, yet whenever force is attempted by 
the North against the rights of the South, headed 
even by colonels of militia covered over with glory 
from the fields of Buena Vista, i promise them re- 
giments in the field from the district from whence 
I come, amid whom I shall be found, though my 
head should be white as snow But I look upon 
all such threats as idle bombast, rather than the 
sentiments of statesmen. Let those who threaten 
to coerce the South to depression and degradation, 
read the terms upon which the States came into 
this Confederacy. Virginia, in her ratification of 



II 



the Constitution , declares " that 'the powers granted 
' under the Constitution being derived from the peo- 
' pie of the United States, may be resumed by them 
' whensoever the same shall be perverted to their 
' injury or oppression, and that every power not 
' granted thereby remains with them and at their 
'will." New York came in on these terms, ex- 
pressed in her articles of ratification, " that all 
' power is originally vested in and consequently de- 
' rived from the people," and " that the powers of 
' government may be reassumed by the people 
' whensoever it shall become necessary to their 
' happiness;" and further, " that no religious sect 
' or society ou^ht to be favored or established by 
' law in preference to others. " Rhode Island came 
in on the following terms: " That there are certain 
' natural rights of which men, when they form a 
' social compact, cannot deprive or divest their pos- 
' terity, among which are the enjoyment of life 
' and liberty, with the means of acquiring, posses- 
' sing, and protecting property, and pursuing and 
' obtaining happiness and safety. That all power 
' is naturally vested in, and consequently derived 
' from the people; that magistrates therefore are 
1 their trustees and agents, and at all times amenable 
• to them;" and " tliat the powers of the Govern- 
' ment may be reassumed by the people, when- 
' soever it may become necessary to their happiness." 
Rhode Island, doubtless recollecting that Roger 
Williams had to leave Massachusetts for heresy, 
added a strong clause against the right of Govern- 
ment to favor religious sects or societies. Thus 
we see Virginia reserved the right to reassume her 
sovereignty whenever the same should be per- 
verted to her injury or oppression; New York re- 
served the right to reassume the powers granted 
to the Government, whenever it should become ne- 
cessary to their happiness; Rhode Island in the same 
words with New York. Let gentlemen reflect 
whether the States have not sufficient justification, 
or if they have not yet, how soon they may have, 
to reassume their sovereignty. Should they tee 
fit to do so, there is no right on earth to prevent 
them. The States making these reservations were 
admitted into the compact with these terms, and 
they thereby became the terms of all, and must 
innure to the benefit of all. 

Melancholy predictions have repeatedly been 
indulged in on this floor, and perhaps by none 
more lavishly than the gentleman from Massachu- 
setts, [Mr. Mann,] as to the condition of the 
South, should she withdraw from the Confedera- 
cy. He describes the scenes of piracy, robbery, 
and plunder, that will be common on her coast. 
I would not desire to see that necessity, nor will 
the South be in fault if it has to come. It will be 
from a sense of the grossest injustice at the hands 
of the North. I am not one of those who would 
seek the necessity, nor am I one of those who 



would shrink from the responsibility, when self- 
preservation may force us to that course. Should 
it occur, however, it seems to me I can see in Che 
distance a better destiny than that assigned by the 
gentleman. With a population of nine millions, 
inhabiting a country rich in every product neces- 
sary for the happiness of man — the day may come 
when her hills and her valleys will resound with 
the anvil and the loom, whilst it may be, that 
Massachusetts will have much less shipping and 
employment for her sailors and mechanics, her 
Lowells be silenced, and the streets of her vil- 
lages grow green. 

That our coasts might be infested in some de- 
gree as the gentleman has described, I will not un- 
dertake to deny; but that those who attempt it 
may meet the fate of some of Massachusetts' sons 
recently in another holy crusade, I think quite 
as likely. 

• i ' wTCKK ok a Si, aver. — The American brig Lucy Ann, 
of Boston, was captured on 20th February, 1850, in latitude 
7° 28' S., and longitude 12° 23' E., and taken to Si. Helena, 
by H. B. M. steam sloop Rattler, Captain Cumming— eleven 
persons in the crew, thirty passengers, and five hundred 
and forty-seven slaves, viz : four hundred and forty-one 
males and one hundred and six females. At the time of 
her capture, the Lucy Ann was commanded by John Ham- 
ilton. He, with the crew, were permitted to go on shore 
on the coast. 

"There were also at St. Helena, the following named 
American vessels, condemned for being in the slave trade : 
Bark Anne D. Richardson ; bark Pilot, of Boston, bark 
Chester, (formerly a whaler.)" 

A word more, to Massachusetts, and I have 
done: She complains that South Carolina refuses 
her colored gentlemen and citizens the rights of 
citizens within the State, but confines them in 
our ports until their vessels depart. We reply to 
Massachusetts, that negroes are not citizens accord- 
ing to our law, nor were they in Massachusetts 
when we formed our association with her; and if 
since that time, she may see fit to citizenize 
monkeys, it will furnish no reason why we should 
allow them such rights in the streets of Charleston.. 
But in this complaint she again forgets what was 
done on this subject by her pilgrim fathers. Let her 
turn to her statute books, and find that by her law 
free negroes who ventured within her limits were 
not only confined to prevent them from mischief, 
but were, under certain regulations, also put to hard 
labor in their workhouses if they refused to depart, 
and whipped with stripes every ten days until they 
should leave the State.* South Carolina has not 
yet attained that refined system of cruelty; when- 
ever she does, then let Massachusetts complain 
And 1 would say to Massachusetts as I say to the 
world, let us alone on this subject. We feel capa- 
ble of taking care of ourselves, and we intend to 
do it. 

* See act of Massachusetts, March 1788. 








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